


Rewind

by ao354



Category: Wanna One (Band)
Genre: Childhood Friends, IT'S NOT AS HEAVY AS U THINK, It may not look like it but trust the pairing, M/M, Minhyun is hoe, Murder Mystery, Not full blown sci-fi, Science Fiction, Slow Burn, i'm sorry but maybe dont read, jaehwan is whipped, mentioned of blood, please bear with me in early chapters, slow update
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-23
Updated: 2019-01-06
Packaged: 2019-09-25 15:43:00
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17124146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ao354/pseuds/ao354
Summary: Minhyun-starts-finding-true-love-challenge. Inspired by the movie 'Happy Death-day'.





	1. The Rundown

 

Heyyyyy it's my birthday!

And I ain't gonna pick up the phone.

Heyyyyy it's my birthday!

Y'all should just leave me alone. 

It's my birthday! 

It's my birthday!

I ain't pickin' up the phone on my birthday.

It's my birthday!

It's my birthday!

I ain't pickin' up the phone on my birthday.

 

 

Minhyun wakes up to the annoying tone. The sounds is blazing to his skull and he doesn’t like how it keeps ringing inside his head and is trapped there. His head feels very heavy due to whatever chaos he did the night before. He adjusts his eyes to the sunlight and looks at the surrounding. It’s definitely not his room, from the way the bed-sheet is crinkling despite being fitted to the mattress, or books that are being dumped and stacked hastily at the corner of the room. There is also sneakers on top of the table just next to a backpack. _Sneakers shouldn’t be on top of a table_. 

 

The ash-brown-haired man grunts while trying to stop the ringing of his phone when he spots a guitar standing proudly at the side of the room, very pristine in relation to the general appearance of the place. He finally knows where he is and he should have not even wondered.

 

“You’ve woken up, _hyung_?” - “Why did you drink that much when your alcohol intake is much lower than mine?”

 

That’s right, despite his poise, Minhyun can only take up 1 or 2 shots max of hard liquor. However, he could not reject last night’s free-offer as it was supposed to be his surprise birthday-party and he was pretty sure he passed out before the clock even hit twelve.

 

Jaehwan is Minhyun’s childhood friend, well, best friend according to the younger. He is just one year younger than him. Sometimes Minhyun thinks if Jaehwan likes to follow him around just to annoy him, including applying to the same faculty under the same university. Whenever Minhyun is unconscious, be it from alcohol intoxication or passing out from heat-stroke, he always end up waking up on Jaehwan’s bed. It cannot be helped, since Minhyun’s room is on the 2nd floor of an old house just across Jaehwan’s 1st-floor-unit (climbing up more stairs would be a hard task if you are drunk or you need to carry a dead-weight body). 

 

“Aspirin”, the taller mumbles, voice hoarse. He tries to lift his body to a sitting position.

“I got you something - ” the younger turns his back and fidgeting on something inside his drawer -  “Happy Birthday, _hyung_!”

 

Jaehwan holds a red velvet cupcake with a candle lit up on top of it. Smile plastered on his face, clearly satisfied as he is the first to wish him ‘a happy birthday’ plus a small cake officially on the 9th of August.

 

“Aspirin Jaehwan-ah!”

“Right… wait… where did I put them?” 

 

Jaehwan hands the cupcake into Minhyun’s palm, who sets the cake aside to the bed-side table, while the burgundy-haired man scatters around his desk and drawers to find the tablet. Once he has found the said package inside his backpack, he gives it to Minhyun. He urgently moves towards the bedside table to get a water bottle and nudges Minhyun’s arm with it. He notices the still lit-up-cake.

 

“You haven’t blown the candle yet, _hyung_ ”

 

“Mmm” Minhyun replies back unamused while getting out of the bed, still in haze. Then he realizes that he is in a pant-less situation, with only his brief attached to his lower body. 

 

“Ahh… last night, you were complaining about it, you said about constraint… I mean, i just tried to help, it was on the seat there” Jaehwan points out as his ears turns into crimson red. “I slept outside last night, _hyung_ , if you are wond — are you leaving?”

 

Jaehwan’s explanation is cut short as he sees Minhyun quickly grabs his jeans and start dressing himself. “I actually want to talk to you about something.” 

 

Minhyun cannot hear the rest of it as Jaehwan’s door slammed open with Sewoon walking onto it. 

 

“ _Hyung_ , are you done with proffesor’s …” 

 

Jung Sewoon, a freshman from the same faculty, has been in love with Jaehwan for - don’t know how long (as long as Minhyun could remember to be very honest). Hates Minhyun for very obvious reason. His eyes lingering from Jaehwan, to Minhyun (who’s struggling to put his pants on) and back to Jaehwan. 

 

“ _Yah_ , why nobody knows the courtesy on knocking in this damned house?!!” 

 

Once Minhyun is ready to go, he walks out of the room and purposely bumps into Sewoon’s shoulder, “Have fun” says the older sarcastically. He can feel the glare at the back of his skulls, but hey pays no attention as it is already hard to walk straight with buzzing head. 

 

Arriving in the living room, he can see the remains of after party, cans of beer everywhere on the floor as well as unconscious bodies on the sofa. Jaehwan’s unit, is occupied by another 3 students; Sewoon, Ha Sungwoon, and Lee Gunhee. They always have an excuse to hold party in their own unit (long-weekend-party, end of the month-party, full-moon-party) but Minhyun has no idea how they could afford them going on for past years. Maybe because the oldest in the unit, Sungwoon, has set the tradition in his first year of his staying here. Speaking of the devil, the smooth-skinned man is in the middle of pulling off the long-ribbon decoration out of their ceilings when he spots Minhyun coming out of Jaehwan’s room. 

 

“Minhyunnie, don’t forget tonight’s party at Hyeongseob’s!”

 

Poor kid, being manipulated and have his place targeted to hold another party.

 

“Mmm” Minhyun hums. He is about to say goodbye when Sungwoon slips his footage over the sticky liquid puddled on the floor and fails to grab onto the edge of the table, causing his body to dive down the floor. 

 

“WHO AMONGST Y’ALL DID NOT CLOSE THE LID PROPERLY!!!” 

 

Minhyun decides to flee out of the place, he cannot bear another high-pitch screaming inside his head. _The problem should be why there was a lubricant bottle there in the first place._

 

In contrast to popular belief, Minhyun hates birthday. He doesn’t get why people are so excited about it when in fact it is just a normal day with the exception you could get anything for free and no one is going to stop you. For Minhyun, that’s his usual routine, he can get away with literally almost everything, by flirting and flaunting his persona, everyone is head over heels for him. Exceptjust handful people and one of them being this very eccentric person:

 

Choi Minki, sitting on the bench beside the park, sipping on coffee under the shade of August’s summer heat while fiddling with his phone. “I’ll let you off today, just cause it’s your birthday, be thankful.” 

 

Before Minhyun can get back to that snarky comment, he sees Jonghyun runs toward the blond man. Both of them share glances and Jonghyun seems to want to say something but it is cut short by Minki who clings to him and whines “Babe, why do you keep me waiting, you know I cant handle summer heat!”

 

Minhyun walks past them and wait for the signal to cross the road. He just wants to buy something for lunch, skips his class today and sleeps through his hangover. As he is crossing the road, he hears the horn of a car, and sees the fiery-red-haired man walks out of the driver seat from the parking lot. 

 

“Happy birthday, _hyung_!”, Daniel, a student from contemporary dance faculty. 

“Thanks, always see you around here recently.” Minhyun feels the thud of their body when Daniel hugs him. 

 

“Yeah, I’m picking up someone for a lunch. You wanna join?”

“Nah” — _I cant be bothered to be with people at the moment —_ “I’ll probably grab something out of convenient store and put myself to sleep.”

 

“Okay, see you tonight at Hyeongseob's!” Daniel waves as he walks across the street.

 

_See, everyone really expecting him to be there_. 

 

He passes the entrance to his house and decides to buy ‘Subway’ for his lunch. Upon arriving, he sees another familiar face inside the store. The proud of theatrical department: Ong Seongwu. He quickly tries to fix his hair and clothes, trying to look more presentable in front of the man who has many agencies-scout-cards inside his wallet. 

 

“Oh hey, fancy meeting you here, didnt know the famous and royal Hwang Minhyun would step inside a sandwich store — Happy Birthday by the way!”

 

“Thanks, you look too neat in the middle of afternoon — Quarter sub tuna with white bread, cheddar cheese, toasted and all salads please” he adds toward the waitress. 

 

“Hyeongseob is thrilled to share the same birthday with you, he gladly accepted when everyone egging to hold a double-joint birthday party at his place. Though officially he’s the host and you are the guest”

 

“So I heard”, Minhyun tries not to stare into Seongwu’s face too much.

“You dont seem to like the idea”, Seongwu received the loose change from the cashier and utters small thanks to the staff.

 

Minhyun only shrugs to reply him.

 

“Well then, let me know if you actually want to go somewhere else to celebrate your birthday. Party would be too common for you no?”

“You dont have my number”

“Everyone has your number Hwang Minhyun, see you when I see you?”

 

“Sure”, Minhyun smirks, his eyes never leave Seongwu’s back, wondering if this is the right time to have a go at ‘ _everyone’s friends- Ong Seongwu_ ’. Out of every guy in his uni, Minhyun doesn’t dare to approach Seongwu first, maybe because he knows the latter is very much confident about himself and for once, Minhyun is not sure if he can make Seongwu’s fall for him.

 

As soon as his order is ready, Minhyun receives a text message from a number he doesn’t know:

 

**From: +822XX XXX XXX**

**It’s Ong, not Hong, not Gong. Save it!**

 

 

_That was easy_. He thinks. So he lightly steps out of the store and walks through the pathway towards his house. 

 

He finishes his meal in no time, and heads to the bathroom (he’s lucky he has the master bedroom for himself) to get a nice shower. He has about 5 hours or so to prepare for the party tonight. With heavy eyelids, he opens the window to allow nice summer breeze seeping inside the room and lays himself on the bed, it only takes seconds for him to fall asleep. 

 

Few incessant buzzes from his phone wakes Minhyun up. They’re all from Jaehwan asking his whereabout, and before he can tap on ‘Reply’ button, the phone vibrates violently. 

 

“ _Hyung_ , where are you?”

“Ermm… still at home, I’ll get ready”

“Do you want me to pick you up?”

 

Minhyun can hear the sounds of loud music banging on the other receiver, thinking Jaehwan probably already at the venue.

 

“No need, just text me the address”

“Okay, it’s about 10 minutes walk from our area.”

 

Soon after Minhyun hangs up, he makes way towards the bathroom and wash his face with water. He rarely put much effort on putting something to his face, but lip-tint is a must. Otherwise he will look like a plain walking-corpse. He choses white-satin tops with low-cut v-neck and pairs it up with black torn-jeans. His hair falls effortlessly surrounding his head, and he doesn’t feel the need to style it. _Let the kid has the spotlight on his birthday_. Hence, Minhyun settles with his outfit and goes downstairs to find his party shoes, the same one he wore the day before. 

 

He checks his phone and finds the easiest route to go to Hyeongseob’s house. It’s about two blocks away and he has to pass by tennis courts. As he walks down pedestrian road, he notices group of people walking toward the opposite direction from Minhyun is going (maybe they’re going to the uni library) but afterward the road is unbelievably empty. It’s Friday night, so by default (on Minhyun’s mind), there should be people going out of their house to have dinner or chill in a club. 

 

Only then Minhyun realizes there is another footsteps following his. He quickly turns his back but he sees none. He switches on his phone’s flashlight to inspect further, but no pet or anything in sight. He’s about halfway to the venue, all he needs to do is walking through the short-tunnel, he can even hear faintly the blasting music from the distance.

 

He speeds up his walk and once he’s inside the tunnel, he turns around quickly to check if there is any movement from the opposite direction. The street lamps provide minimum lights. Minhyun squints his eyes, but again, maybe it’s just his mind playing around. Still curious, he walks one step back and swivels his body only to find a masked-clown in front of him standing still. 

“Fuck!!”, Minhyun yelps.

 

“It’s not funny” Minhyun tries to keep his voice down at minimum level, just to show the other person how calm he is despite the erratic beating of his heart. 

 

The clown, however, does not respond nor making any gesture to move from his spot at all. 

 

“Cut it out!” Minhyun is about to shove the man’s shoulder but his hand is slapped sideway, catching Minhyun off-guard.

 

“WHY ARE YOU LATE HWANG MINHYUN HYUNG!!” the man screams as he takes off his mask, revealing a more friendlier face of Euiwoong, Hyeongseob’s cousin.

 

“You are making me late- _r_. Why are you here anyway?”

“The pizza guy cannot find our place, I clearly told him our house was after the tunnel. So I’m here waiting for him.” Euiwoong spreads out his arm as if the tunnel is part of his house. “Go on _hyung,_ they have started long ago, you missed your celebratory-shots, and Hyeongseob- _hyung_ already half passed out.”

 

“Leave the mask out Euiwoong, you’ll scare the delivery guy.” Minhyun says as he leaves the younger behind.

 

“It’s their punishment _hyung_ , for making me come down here.”

 

Minhyun can now see the house clearly and everyone seem to be inside already to escape the night-heat. Big is understatement to describe Heyongseob’s house. It is luxurious. The house has minimalistic design from the outside but there is so much space inside and the backyard is vast with swimming pools on the side. The ceilings are high and made of wooden, glasses decorated on many sides of the wall providing natural light during the day. Minhyun doesn’t know the younger very well aside from the part where his parents entrusted the property to him as they stay in China. 

 

The kid in question is almost passed out when he spotted Minhyun coming from the main door.

 

“Oohh… my twin- _hyung_!!! Happy Birthday to me! wait.. to us!! Chheeeerrsss”, he says while holding another champagne glass for Minhyun to take. 

 

“Thanks for inviting me, Happy Birthday kiddo!”

 

“No no no… Happy Birth—“ his sentence is cut-off as he almost falls over toward his other friend.

 

“Sorry about that, he just turned legal this year, not really accustomed to drinking yet. Help yourself”

 

Minhyun doesn’t need permission, he looks around hoping to see familiar face he can mingle with that is not Choi Minki. He’s about to pull up his phone out of his pocket to call Jaehwan, but he hears the shrieking laughters, y _es, plural,_ which means Jaehwan and Sungwoon should be in vicinity. The two are next to the drinking stall accompanied by Daniel, hence Minhyun approaches them and start taking his time drinking too. 

 

The DJ changes the music and makes it livelier, encouraging people to dance wherever they are standing. It’s hard not to dance along especially when you have a good amount of alcohol in your system. Amidst all that however, Minhyun hears whispers from behind his ears:

 

“Haven’t got your text, figured you’d be here”

 

The first thing Minhyun sees is the triangular mole on the said man. He cannot help to feel little bit expectant at the gesture.

 

“Why would you think I’d text you back?”

“I don’t know, maybe you’d want to be alone somehow”

 

The taller pauses at that comment, and decides to play along: “I do now, so what do you have in mind?”

 

Seongwu twirls the key around his fingers, and Minhyun immediately knows the innuendo. He puts down his beer and about to take further steps when his arm is being pulled by another male. 

 

“Where are you going _hyung?_ The birthday boy should be in the main room.” Jaehwan mutters slowly as if it’s a plea.

 

“Well get Hyeongseob here then, it’s his party”, Minhyun takes another steps to at Seongwu’s direction.

 

“Are you sure about this?” Jaehwan nods his head towards the theatrical student.

 

“Jaehwan, I’m way sober than I was at the same time yesterday. Let me get my fun!” 

The older puts his other hand on top of Jaehwan’s and slowly force it to let them go. He can see how the younger face falls at this especially at the pout of his mouth (the habit Jaehwan has since he was young). But Minhyun cannot help himself.

 

With that Minhyun lets the black-haired man drags him outside the centre room towards the second floor. 

 

“You look like you know this house well”, Minhyun says as he tilts his neck for more access to Seongwu’s light kisses.

 

“Was a tenant before.” Seongwu mumbles into Minhyun’s ears while his other hand opening the door behind them.

 

“Doesn’t look like you need the key for this room.”

“Well what makes you think the key I showed you was for this house at all?”

 

Minhyun’s pupil dilated at the other’s remarks, and he pushes Seongwu hard that the latter falls into the bed behind him. 

 

“Smart-ass! Let me go to the bathroom.” he says while trudging to the toilet inside the room. 

“What… don’t keep me waiting” Seongwu says, laying himself as comfortable as possible. 

 

The toilet’s light is little bit dim, but Minhyun can still see he looks more than just fine. He ruffles his own hair to make it little bit seductive and untucks his own shirt for convenient to whatever might happen later. 

 

He opens the bathroom door to find a figure wearing a fox-mask right in front of him and a maroon hoodies. His heart jumps at the sight but he remembers the previous episode.

 

“Euiwoong, I said cut it off already!”

 

However, one thing that Minhyun realizes that this person in front of him is a lot taller than Hyeongseob’s cousin. Only then his eyes falls toward the background behind the opposite man. It is a view Minhyun cannot comprehend. 

 

Seongwu laying on the bed with his back against the wall. His head is down that only the crown of his hair can be seen from Minhyun’s point of view. But the most frightening sight is the color of the bedsheet surrounding Seongwu’s position. It’s crimson red despite the perfectly white satin on the other part of the bed. 

 

Minhyun trails the traces of the stain from the bed, down to the floors, and little drops of blood falls from the pointy end of the knife the masked man is holding. His mind goes blank, the first instinct should be screaming for help and running away from this man. However, Minyun does none, _unable_ to do either. 

 

It takes about split of second for Minhyun to duck out sideways and pushes the man in front of him when he raises his hand (the one holding the knife). Minhyun dashes towards the room’s door but he feels another hand grabbing his shirt and pulls down his entire body to the floor. His back lands harshly onto the hard surface and his enemy manages to mount him perfectly. 

 

Minhyun screams at the top of his lung but he hears nothing aside the loud music coming from downstairs as the killer jabs the weapon onto his chest. He sees the red liquid splattered around his vicinity as the man stabs him incessantly. His eyelids feels heavy, if this is murder, then why don’t he feel the pain? Is he dead before his brain could even translate the pain from the nervous system?

 

The house-music fading towards the background, but it soon grows louder bit by bit. As if someone turn up the volume by one bar each seconds. Then Minhyun hears it: 

 

Heyyyyy it's my birthday!

And I ain't gonna pick up the phone.

Heyyyyy it's my birthday!

Y'all should just leave me alone. 

It's my birthday! 

It's my birthday!

I ain't pickin' up the phone on my birthday.

It's my birthday!

It's my birthday!

I ain't pickin' up the phone on my birthday.

 

**“You’ve woken up, _hyung_?” - “Why did you drink that much when your alcohol intake is much lower than mine?”**

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (1) I'm in practice to post on ao3 while waiting for mh_dusk, if there's any missed tag, pls do tell me and I'll fix them
> 
> (2) The ringtone that I inserted at the beginning of the chapter is from the trailer (?) or from the ending credit of the movie itself. You can hear it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldz8Nmion2s
> 
> (3) Thank you if any of you have come this far, and yes, this is a chaptered fic. I'm new writer, please have mercy


	2. Deja Vu

Minhyun opens his eyes to a very familiar room. He scrambles to find his phone to find out the time and date through the home-screen:

 

Friday, 9th of August.

 

He raises his back from the mattress and the dizziness spreads around inside his head. 

 

“Aspirin…” he grumbles.

“I got you something…” —“Happy Birthday, _hyung!_ ”

 

It’s a red velvet cupcake, complete with a lit-up candle. Minhyun inspects the small cake further, without commenting, he takes it from Jaehwan’s hand and puts it aside to the nearest table.

 

“Where did I put them?”

As the younger rummaging his desks and its surrounding, Minhyun extends his hand to reach the water bottle underneath the bedside table. 

 

“Oh… you have water ready” the other says while handing over the small package of aspirin.

 

Minhyun cannot hear what is Jaehwan’s ranting about as he gets off from the bad, his head is heavy, and he feels tingling paint on his lower ribs. He is staggering towards where his jeans is folded when Sewoon comes barging from the room’s door, asking about some notes. 

 

After quickly fixing his jeans, the pale man walks out of the room while still rubbing on that sore spots of his abdomen. He nearly ignores Sungwoon’s greeting until he realizes the older falls and screams:

 

“WHO AMONGST Y’ALL DID NOT CLOSE THE LID PROPERLY!!!”

 

Minhyun stands still at the scene and sees the un-capped-bottle of lube rolling nearby Sungwoon’s leg. He brings his foot slowly outside of the house while thinking very hard, _Where have I heard that before?_. 

 

Minhyun has never been good at multi-tasking. Trying to walk home while pulling out something out of your memory on top of the spinning head and the throbbing chest definitely not a good idea. He crosses the pedestrian walk before the light turns in time and almost risks himself running over by car (luckily there are not many traffics outside this housing area). He is startled by the sound of car's horn though. 

 

“ _Hyung!!_ I almost run you over while trying to park my car here!! Are you sober??” Daniel half-shouts from inside his car. His head peeks out from the driver seat.

 

As soon as he secures his spot, he jumps down and hugs Minhyun tightly:

“Happy birthday, _hyung_!”

“Thanks.” 

“I’m about to go for lunch, do you want to join?”

 

“N— no?” the older answers a bit hesitantly 

 

“Okay, see you tonight at Hyeongseob’s!”

 

Again, Minhyun feels that these series of events feels too familiar to his liking. He cannot exactly pinpoint but his heart tugs uncomfortably for what about to happen next. Alternatively he  _maybe_  is just hungry after not eating anything for the past 12 hours and the headache he is experiencing right now may be due to the lack of water inside his body.

 

He makes a detour towards the nearby ‘Subway’ store and informs the willing waitress of his order.

 

“Oh hey, fancy meeting you here … — ”

 

Minhyun's head never spin that fast at the tone of someone else’s voice. He barely even tuning in to what Seongwu is saying. He is too shocked to meet Seongwu at this store, _again_. Amidst all these confusions that have been happening, Minhyun settles his mind at one final point, the one that draws the final threshold of his sanity.

 

“Do you have my number?” Minhyun asks abruptly.

 

Seongwu pauses his explanation mid-sentence, “Well, everyone knows your number, Hwang Minhyun. I’ll see you soon I guess?” Seongwu says while taking his order and walking out of the store, waving at the confused man.

 

_Wait, calm down. He’s right, that’s just basic reply everyone would say about my personal info._ Minhyun inhales deeply as he grabs the water-bottle from the stall. After paying all of his orders, he decides to sit in one of the table inside the store, he doesn’t think he can walk back to the house with ease, _he barely could even stand now_. He gulps down the water half-empty, looking at the fine device in front of him. The ‘ping’ sound indicating that he has incoming messages:

 

**From: +822XX XXX XXX**

**It’s Ong, not Hong, not Gong. Save it!**

 

_NO!!_ That’s the very first message Minhyun has from that number, so whatever that he dreamt the night before is happening to him one by one in front of his eyes. He types ‘multiple deja vu on the same day’ into Google search and skims through all the results. 

 

_Small seizure._

_Epilepsy._

_Spiritual phenomenon._

 

He stops scrolling down the page-result and throws his phone on the table. Hesitantly he unwraps his sandwich, and starts biting the small bit. He chews and chews, but even his throat refusing to swallow the food despite his stomach grumbling loudly. Minhyun is always a logical and realistic person, if his dream would be realized just as is, all he requires to do to survive is by cutting off all the coincidental events that are about to happen. Hence, he takes his phone and starts typing: 

 

 

**To: +822XX XXX XXX**

**Guess i’m bored with all the parties. Plan B?**

1:43 pm

 

**From: +822XX XXX XXX**

**I know this italian place, great ambience, always full,** **but the owner will never reject his beloved cousin**

**I have night class, so will be a bit late, get some snack ahead**  
****

**I’ll be there at 8?**

1:45 pm

 

**To: +822XX XXX XXX**

**Cool. send me the address. meet u there**

1:46 pm

 

 

Minhyun discards the rest of his sandwich and finishes off the water. He steps out of the store and speed-walks toward his home. It is no use to over analyze the situation, and not like everything has to mirror exactly like his dream.

 

Upon arriving to his house, he quickly showers and charges his phone. He sets the alarm at 7pm, that’s should be enough time to prep himself up. He sends another text to Jaehwan stating that he won’t be coming to Hyeongseob’s house. Minhyun doesn’t know why he feel the need to text Jaehwan, maybe it’s habit, maybe to stop the younger for worrying about him later on? He throws the phone back at the table and ready himself to sleep. Few buzzes and pings from his desk telling him that Jaehwan definitely has read the text. 

 

He wakes up minutes before the alarm ringing, feeling much better than he was few hours ago. He grabs water from the jar across the room and checks on his phones. Five text messages from Jaehwan asking him if he was okay and why he could not come. Minhyun chooses to leave them at ‘read’. He heads towards his closet, sorting and scrambling for clothes to wear and his eyes falls into the white low cut v-neck top. 

_I’m an idiot_. 

He laughs at himself and picks that top along with black fitted jeans. It doesn’t take long for Minhyun to be ready, and he decides to leave the house early. He either feels restless at staying idle or afraid to be caught in traffic jam going to restaurant. _Maybe_ it is the latter. 

 

After successfully entering the address of the restaurant into the GPS, he drives his car out of the driveway. The sky has turned dusk, and once he reaches the main road he gets caught up in hefty amounts of vehicles lining up for lane. 

 

**Heyyyyy it's my birthday!**

**And I ain't gonna pick up the phone.**

 

Minhyun automatically presses the pick up button (he really needs to change the ringtone, who was the culprit behind this change of ringtone anyway). 

 

“ _Hyung,_ where are you? Why are you not coming?”, Jaehwan whiny voice comes out of the speaker.

 

“I am not in the mood, Jaehwan-ah”

“You…don’t seem to be in the house. Are you going somewhere else?”

“…”

 

“Will — will you be coming here though? After — after… whatever you’re doing?” Jaehwan once again fails to mask his disappointment.

 

“Look, I’ll be involved in accident if I keep talking. I’ll call you again if I’m coming, okay?” at that, Minhyun hangs up.

 

He finds another route which can take him to the restaurant little bit faster (less traffic) than the current chosen one, so he signals the light and marches toward a different lane. Somehow inside his heart Minhyun feels the need to be there quicker, to clear up whatever cloudy judgement he initially had. 

 

Arriving earlier is what Hwang Minhyun does. He easily finds the parking lot about 20m away from the restaurant and walks his way toward its entrance. 

 

The old man, acknowledging Minhyun’s arrival and introduces himself as Seongwu’s uncle.

“Seongwu said his handsome friend would come at around this time, and I already knew it’d be you as soon as you set foot inside this place — Happy Birthday!”

 

“Thank you” Minhyun replies back. 

 

Similarly to Seongwu, his uncle is super friendly and very talkative towards everyone. He kindly explains to Minhyun how he first started this family business and how he struggled at first because many people opposed him to open a western-style restaurant. Not to mention how the restaurant itself located at a very peculiar position. He mentioned about how cheap the land was when he first bought it because nobody wanted to build a property exactly at the ’T’-junction. He proved all his relatives wrong when the business started going really well 4 years ago. 

 

“Sometime, when you are tired of normal life, and needs to get away from it but nowhere you can run to, the solution is simply by looking at every traffic in this very main road. Just like the calm upon seeing the shape of flame inside the fireplace. Don’t you agree?”

 

Seongwu’s uncle smiles as he leads Minhyun to his table where it lies next to the big and large window facing towards the road. From where Minhyun is seating, he can see all the directions of where the traffic is going, in and out. He thanks Seongwu’s uncle and asks for soda to wait for Seongwu’s arrival.

 

As Minhyun gazes towards the busy night’s lights coming from cars he wonders how the place is indeed bizarre. Past the window outside, there is a driveway to the restaurant but there is no raising platform. Making it highly dangerous for any drunk-driver, or high-speed break-malfunction-vehicle to accidentally drive through this area. Just like the truck up ahead, Minhyun would not know if it is going left or right had it not turn on his signals, and _why it travels at such speed at the intersection_ , he wonders. 

 

Minhyun lifts his head from his palm, examines the vehicle further. The truck’s headlights are not flickering, and no audible horn either, so this is not the case where the brake is malfunctioned _right?_ However, neither the speed of the vehicle is getting slower, it should either go for left or right turn but the blinkers are off. Only when the truck is getting closer, Minhyun realizes who sits on the driver-seat:

 

That same red-blood-hoodie, complete with black gloves and a fox-mask. The mask spotting a set of yellow eyes just like how the real fox's eyes should be and the mouth smirking across the face from ear to ear, as if laughing at Minhyun’s distress. 

 

It’s too late for Minhyun to scream, let alone to move. By the time Minhyun opens his mouth, the truck smashed through the window, shattering the glass with loud crashing sounds. Upon the first contact with Minhyun’s body, it shows no mercy. Minhyun’s figure is thrown sideways hitting the high-table of the bar and slammed down onto the floor. 

 

He hears the siren ringing loudly, and the cracking of glass. He tried to gasp for air but nothing is inhaled. Minhyun’s vision is blurry.

 

_You’ve gotta be joking, right._

 

Heyyyyy it's my birthday!

And I ain't gonna pick up the phone.

Heyyyyy it's my birthday!

Y'all should just leave me alone. 

It's my birthday! 

It's my birthday!

I ain't pickin' up the phone on my birthday.

It's my birthday!

It's my birthday!

I ain't pickin' up the phone on my birthday.

 

Minhyun wakes up to the ringtone again and quickly sits up. He heaves for air and fights for his breath.

 

“You’ve woken up, _hyung_?” - “Why did you drink that much when your alcohol intake is much lower than mine?”

“Jaehwan… JAEHWAN…!” — _he needs to tell someone._

 

“I got you something. Happy Birthd —”

 

Minhyun bats the cupcake sideways, ignoring the shocked face the younger makes. 

 

“Listen Jaehwan-ah… somebody… _somebody…_ t - tried to…t - to kill me!”

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (1) I told you to bear with me right? Please do for this chapter too. It'll get more minhwan at the next one I promise.
> 
> (2) I'm not sure about you but in my own culture, it's quite a taboo to have a house built on T-section of the road, my family used to say it would bring bad luck, misfortune, etc. But i believe those superstitious are there for safety reason. I know it's reaching to have restaurant in T-junction, again, please have mercy on me and let it slide.
> 
> (3) No, i dont enjoy killing anyone in fic, just fyi


	3. The Awaken

“Wait… What?” — “What are you talking about _hyung_?”, Jaehwan’s face is a mix of bewilderment and disbelief.

 

“I — I was being cha— someone… I — keep seeing this… ”, Minyun’s forehead is covered in sweat, his breath is ragged and his eyes are wavering. “ - keep seeing this man — and… and he …” _killed me,_ Minhyun cannot finish his sentence, because saying it sounds even more absurd than thinking it inside of his mind. 

 

“Jaehwan-ah, please, please lock the door” he begs.

“You are having a bad dream _hyung._ ”

“Just — Lock the DAMNED DOOR!! Before Sewoon coming in!”

 

Jaehwan turns his body and slowly approaches the door while still looking confuse at the older one. As soon as he reaches the knob of the door, it is slung open, and luckily he has good reflexes to avoid his face being slammed by the wooden door. 

 

“ _Hyung_ — ah sorry…”

“Oh !!”

 

Sewoon glances through Jaehwan’s behind but before he could say something, the shorter cut him off:

“Sorry Sewoon-ah, we’ll talk later ok?”

 

Jaehwan has finally locked the door behind him and he swiftly approaches Minhyun who is still in the bed massaging his own chest. 

 

“You heard him walking here from across the room didn’t you?”

“No. Listen — Jaehwan …”, Minhyun now is crouching to the footrest of the bed and tries to reach for Jaehwan’s arms, forcing him to sit down. They’re face to face now and Minhyun can see the curiosity in his friend’s eyes.

 

“… I had been through this day before, _multiple times_. I know it sounds crazy but in those times, I had been —” long pauses before he continues his word “— killed”

“But — you are _here?_ ” the burgundy-haired-male asks carefully.

“I— I don’t know how to explain it either, but every time I die, I always wake up here, on the same bed, at the same time, on the same day”

 

“ _Hyung,_ I think you need to see the doctor”

“— You think I’m crazy?”

“No — You’re bleeding. Your nose is bleeding _hyung_ ”. Jaehwan pointed to his own nose, trying to make a point.

 

Minhyun touches his nose with his index finger and feels as the blood running down his mouth. _This is new_. They can hear Sungwoon’s screaming from the living room and Jaehwan passes tissue box for Minhyun to wipe his bleeding nose.

 

“Let’s go to the doctor _hyung._ I will drive you there.”

 

Minhyun takes the tissue and starts wiping the stain out of his nose. He slowly gets up and puts on his jeans, while the younger silently takes the discarded cupcake from the floor and reluctantly dumps it into the bin.

 

They are both in Jaehwan’s car right now and nobody dares to say anything, _as if mentioning about the issue will make the nosebleed worse_. The nearest GP would be the one near university, that’s where Jaehwan drives his car to. Minhyun sits silently on the passenger seat, contemplating whether informing his childhood friend about this problem is a a good idea after all. He can hear the male next to him answering his phone and talks to the other person about how he couldn’t make it for their lunch.

 

“I’ll make it up to you next time — Sorry — No… not yet — Okay, bye”

 

Minhyun breaks the silence between the two after the other hangs up his phone:

“Sorry, you have class today don’t you?”

“It’s okay, _Hyung_ has it too right? Are you going to skip?”

“I had planned to skip it initially anyway.”

 

Luckily there’s not many people in the clinic, hence Mihyun could get the appointment straight away. The doctor allows both of them inside the office and she starts asking all symptoms and checking on Minhyun’s blood pressure.

 

“Do you have allergy? and how’s the allergic reaction if you have any?”

“Sea water, fine dust, cats, dogs, well, pets with hairs. I normally have rashes if I come too close”

“No hay fever or pollen-allergy?” 

“Nothing so far”

 

The doctor brings forward a small flash light and check on Minhyun’s nose. 

“Looks like it’s one-off occurrence, considering you have low blood pressure” — “Do you feel dizzy?”

“Uh— yes”

“Did you drink alcohol last night?”

 

Minhyun doesn’t answer her questions and he doesn’t like how the doctor’s eyebrows rises in a judgemental way when she asks Minhyun to turn around while she checks through her stethoscope. 

 

“Aahh…!” Minhyun yelps when the doctors instructs him to take a deep breath.

 

“Any discomfort?”

“I’ve been feeling this pain in my chest, I don’t know exactly but it kinda comes and goes.”

“Do you smoke?”

“No, never”

“How long have you been feeling this way?”

 

_Since the day I died_ , Minhyun almost blurts that out.

 

“Umm - since … since yesterday?”

 

If earlier Minhyun hated her judgemental glaring, he hates it even more now where her eyes is a mix of concern and confusion. He notices her typing in her computer and soon after the sounds of paper being printed breaks the awkwardness. 

 

“I’ve made medical certificate, if you have any class today, it’s better not to attend”

 

_Great. As if I have next week when I’m stuck at today,_ Minhyun thinks

 

“Also, do me a favour. If you could get to the radiology real quick to get an x-ray that would be great.” — “I need more detail on your heart and lungs”

“Is there anything wrong?” Jaehwan who is behind the desk all this while is startled at the information.

 

“I just need to double confirm. Just go to the university-affiliated one, they’ll be able to send the result here quickly and we can discuss it together again today.” The doctor says calmly while handing the tall male the reference letter and medical certificate. 

 

They left the clinic in a daze, Minhyun is completely dispirited. For once, they drive to the nearest radiology in utter silence.

 

The process takes rather quickly as the receptionist reads through the letter Minhyun gave her and informs where and what to do next.

“Okay, it’s done, the result will be sent to your doctor and she will call you to make appointment”, the radiologist explains.

“Thank you very much”, Jaehwan replies politely instead of Minhyun. 

 

Now there’s nothing more to do except waiting for the doctor’s call to tell them the verdict. Jaehwan insists that they should have lunch around the place, as it’s already way past lunch time. 

 

“The _galbijjim_ here is really good _hyung._ I had it before and been wanting to eat together with you”

 

In the span of less than 10 minutes, their table is filled with many side-dishes and quite generous amount of meat (courtesy of Jaehwan who knows the owner quite well). 

 

“Just a mouthful _hyung,_ it’s really good”

 

Minhyun obliges rather quickly, as his stomach grumbling, asking him for a proper meals.

 

“It’s good right?”

“Mmm”, the ash-brown-haired-male agrees.

 

The older thinks Jaehwan always know how to tackles his worry since they were young; be it from offering Minhyun’s favourite foods or drinks, to having movie marathon (mainly transformer’s series). Although the taller doubt if Jaehwan even likes the movie. 

 

Jaehwan waits until Minhyun finishes all of his food before he starts asking the most pressuring question,

“You said earlier, about someone tried to — you know — and what do you mean by multiple times?”

 

The man in question puts down his drinking glass, grabs tissue paper and wipes his mouth. He looks at Jaehwan and glances around the table, as if afraid of someone eavesdropping their conversation. Carefully and softly Minhyun tells the younger about the man in the fox-masked, and that the murderer had been trying to kill him twice, and he knows this because whenever he dies, he always wakes up at the same time on the same date, his birthday. 

 

“So you don’t get to die, which is good —” Minhyun glared at the burgundy-haired male “—well not that reliving the same day is good, but at least you get the chance to maybe…I dont know, find the murderer?”, Jaehwan adds on quickly.

 

“You are saying that _I have to keep on dying_ just to find the guy who kills me?”, Minhyun stresses his sentence on the ‘die’ part. He is petrified at the idea and cannot believe Jaehwan dares to even suggest it. 

 

“What more can you do? So are you just going to wait and let yourself be killed?”

 

The older is silent, he hates the idea but cannot deny the truth behind Jaehwan’s suggestion.

 

“One thing for sure _Hyung,_ that fox-guy definitely knows your birthday. I mean, isn’t that the reason you always wake up on your birthday?”

“Everyone knows my birthday though. You guys held surprise party yesterday.”

“Oh… I know!! Let’s start listing out people who might have vengeance toward you”

 

Minhyun scowls at the statement. “I dont think I’m that despicable”.

 

“How about Ong Seongwu, he’s been asking about you a lot” the younger ignores.

“Don’t start listing people just cause you don’t like them — No, it’s not him. He got killed first when we were in the room”.

“—wait, what room?”

“Had he come early to our meeting, he would have been killed with me the second time ”, Minhyun continues disregarding Jaehwan’s questions.

 

“You went on date with Seongwu _hyung?_ ”

Minhyun doesn’t need to answer as his phone buzzing indicating a new number which the man assumes as the clinic’s phone. He picks up the call and immediately arranges the follow up appointment to discuss the result.

 

“Let’s get back to the clinic, she wants to discuss the x-ray result”.

 

Jaehwan pouts but still complies at the request. They pay for the meal and heads back toward the clinic. 

 

Approaching the doctor’s office, Minhyun asks Jaehwan to wait outside, to which the latter declined. He has no choice but to listen to what the doctor says together.

 

“You see this part here?” she pointed at the first image of what Minhyun can assume as his ribs from the side view. 

“Your 4th-5th ribs doesn’t look as dense as the other ribs. It’s almost like they’re invisible.” —, she moves to the next image “Over here, I am having trouble locating your left diaphragm. This condition normally apparent to people who just got an accident and received a severe trauma”, the lady explains in a very concerning tone.

 

Hearing this Minhyun turns his head quickly at Jaehwan, in which the latter quickly defends himself: “I swear to God I didn’t toss you onto a moving vehicle when I carried you last night. Plus I wasn’t even that drunk and Sungwoon’s hyung was totally sober. We barely even drank 2 shots!!”.

 

The doctor sighs and continues her explanation as if there’s more depressing matter at hands. She points to the 3rd image which reveals Minhyun’s whole chest area from front.

“Based from this radiograph here, it indicates that you have pulmonary contusion. In other word it’s a chest trauma as a result of damaged capillaries in your lung tissues. Especially in your case, this looks like you have been — stabbed”, the lady finishes as if questioning her own logic. 

 

Minhyun’s eyes are wavering, cold sweats is dripping on his back. Hands gripping tightly on either side of the chairs. His minds runs through a quick flashback on how he died _yesterday_ and _the day before_. 

 

“Of course everything doesn’t make sense because considering all of these implications, you shouldn’t even be —”

“— _Alive._ ” Minhyun cuts off the doctor’s sentence midway.

 

“— shouldn’t even be walking and breathing easily” she lies, but her guise falls short.

 

Minhyun feels the inside of his stomach turns upside down, nauseating. He cannot find the energy to say anything back to the doctor. He wonders if there’s connection between his current health and the failed-murder-attempts. 

 

“Ey — our _hyung_ just like cats, you know, he has 10 lives” Jaehwan tries to joke around and melts the awkward situation. However Minhyun no longer concentrating, he dazes in silence when the doctor suggests him for further examination in the hospital and going to specialist. 

 

As soon as they are back in Jaehwan’s car, he leans his head in the window glass, closing his eyes to suppress what he had heard. He feels the car engine revving up, and lets himself to immerse deeply in thoughts. How he wishes he could fast-forward the time, that the night would come faster, to allow himself be killed _again_ just for the day to be reset, hence he would get more time to sleep before the cycle repeats itself. 

The other male drives carefully and lets his _hyung_ calm himself. Though he knows it is impossible to remain calm after an expert actually tells you that you are dying inside. He has lost count at how many times this awkward silence falls between them, but particularly now, it’s very different than others.

Without Minhyun realizing, Jaehwan has already parked his car just in front of his house. He carefully opens the passenger door from outside and helps the taller to step outside of the car. He walks the latter towards the front door. Before he can say anything, the older grabs his arm and says softly with his head held down, “Can you accompany me tonight?”.

Jaehwan looks carefully at his _hyung_ , he sees the tired eyes and the pale of his skin. His heart just wrenches at that, hence he nods and steps inside the house following Minhyun towards the 2nd floor. 

“Nobody else at home?”

“Mmm, the family went out to Busan last week and they won’t be back till the following Sunday.”

 

“Should have told them to fix this window-frame when you can”, the younger says immediately when he enters Minhyun's room as he jams his palm try to get the window open, but it doesn’t budge even a little.

Minhyun extends his two arms toward each side of the wood-frame, caging Jaehwan in the middle, and alternates between pushing and lifting the side of the window instead of opening them by force. The breeze starts to creeping in, cooling the inside of the room which feels damp and suffocating due to the heat that is trapped beneath the carpeted floor. 

“I can never win against this window” the shorter says with crimson-ears. “Clean yourself _hyung_ , I will help myself.”

The other male hesitates for a while, he bits his lips, contemplating if he should just sleep without caring that he hasn’t showered since yesterday’s night and it’s almost 4 pm now.

“I won’t leave, should I sing while you are showering? Like we used to do when we were kid?”

Minhyun smiles weakly at that and proceeds to the bathroom at the corner of the room across the window, “That was you. I have to sing a full song for you to finish your business.”

Jaehwan sings anyway. Not knowing that the older carefully analyzes his own body in front of the mirror. Caressing the skin underneath the clothes, trying to find any open wound, but both his senses fail to detect any scars. _Why_.

 

Afraid of being too long inside the shower, Minhyun brings his body to the other side of the room to find Jaehwan sitting on the sofa next to his bed while flipping of what looks like a photo album. The former drags his feet to climb the bed and finds comfortable position to ready himself for a nap. 

 

“Wow, this was when I was 5, we were at the neighbourhood police station. Gosh, look at your knees, those are huge bandaids”, Jaehwan looks at the window from far, reminiscing. “Why were we there again? Ahh, right, you were chasing me.”

 

“I was chasing you cause you chose to hide on a moving truck. I never ran that far my whole life”.

“But you didn’t stop. You did fall down multiple times, but you kept on running”.

“Well you were lucky, I almost changed my mind before the driver finally heard my screaming and stopped the truck”

Jaehwan snickers, ”He took us to the police station but we were too far away from home and the police took picture to scare us that if nobody called when they put it into morning newspaper they would drop us at the zoo. Lucky our parents came a bit later.” 

 

“Oh, this one was during _hyung_ ’s theatrical performance when you were 7.” 

The older doesn’t quite remember what picture Jaehwan is referring to. He sways his head softly and waits until Jaehwan looks back at him. Minhyun pats his bed with his left hand, signalling the younger to lie next to him. He can see the other's little hesitant movement (but he moves anyway) before they can finally fit themselves in Minhyun’s bed. 

 

“The one where you basically butchered the whole performance?”, says Minhyun after seeing the picture clearer from Jaehwan’s hand. The photo displays how kid-Jaehwan dressed up as a tree with only his face visible, crying on crowned-Minhyun’s arms. The current Minhyun snuggles closer while laying his head on the other’s arm, eyes heavy and nearly close its lids. 

 

“Well, I didnt like the princess”, Jaehwan says softly while carefully puts the photo album away on the bedside table. Afraid of disturbing the nearly-asleep-Minhyun.

 

Few minutes passes, but before Jaehwan can conclude that finally the guy next to him is indeed sleeping, he hears a mutter:

“Don’t sleep before I do.”

“Hmm?”

The taller keeps his eyes closed, “You were scared of ghost, scared of clowns, the closets, the space under the bed, the windows, bugs. You said it so often — let me cash in that rain check now. _Don’t sleep — before I do_ ”

 

“ _Okay_ ” the smaller swipes the hair from Minhyun’s forehead. Looking at him fondly.

“9”

“What is it _hyung_?”

“Cats have 9 lives”

Jaehwan swifts a little on his side, just a little, for him to circle his left hands on Minhyun’s waist. Hoping it could provide assurance, because he knows he will not go away anytime soon. 

“Sleep well _hyung._ ”

 

* * *

 

“Ah I’m sorry, can you walk across the house. I forgot my address is auto-saved in the app. I’ll come down to get you. I’m sorry. Thank you — Yes…Yes”.

 

Minhyun wakes up from Jaehwan’s voice answering his calls. He burrows himself further onto the pillow at the same time stretching his own legs. 

 

“Did you sleep well _hyung_? It’s way past dinner, so I ordered pizza. The delivery-man should be here soon, I’ll get them”, the younger says as he jumps off the bed and heads outside the room towards the ground floor. 

 

Night has fallen, the room is lit from the lamp on the bedside table. The ash-brown-haired man sits up slowly and extends his arm to reach the water bottle. He gulps a good amount to moist his own throat. He blinks several times, adjusting his breath, trying to find the same sensational pain he felt earlier. 

 

Few minutes has passed but he doesn’t hear any movement from the floor below. 

 

“Jaehwan-ah”, he calls.

 

Feeling uneasy from the unanswered response, he steps out of the bed very slowly, and peeks towards the main entrance. The absence of lights unable him to see further. Minhyun grabs the door knob and carefully closes the door without making any sounds. He locks it immediately, thinking if Jaehwan climbs upstairs, he would knock and call his name instead. 

 

_Right. Just close any openings, and you will be fine._

 

Surprisingly the room has become chilly, literally and figuratively. Minhyun walks across the bed towards the window to close it. He’s about to raise his hands when he sees the reflection on the window:

 

The door from his bathroom opens with creaking sounds and there he goes without warning, a familiar face despite how Minhyun refuses to remember it. Sneer plastered on the fox’s face as he dashes forward where Minhyun is standing. 

 

It hasn’t even reached a complete turn before Minhyun is pushed full force against the window. _He’s strong_. Not like Minhyun forget about it, but this time he can properly feel it because he doesn’t fight back. _Incapable_ of doing so when he is caught off-guard.

 

Fingers trying to grab the edges of window, and when he fails, Minhyun spreads his limbs, trying to hook his legs onto something to avoid the fall. He knows his effort is in vain when he feels his back crashes down the asphalt. He can hear screaming from afar, but he refuses to care. He knows he’s going to die soon, and he will hear that _damned_ tone again. 

 

_So are you just going to wait and let yourself be killed_

 

Jaehwan's voice echoes in his head. Minhyun concentrate his remaining energy to stare back at the nasty creature looking at him from his 2nd floor’s window. He makes sure to look at the other directly into his eyes, as if saying:

 

_Wait and see, the next time we meet, I’m going to be ready._

_When I have your neck against my fingers, I won’t hesitate to clamp over it._

_I will wait for your begging but I won’t let you finish._

_When I’m done, I’m going to rip that mask with a knife, not worrying if it touches your skin._

_Wait and see._

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (1) I’m sorry it’s taking quite long because I tend to overthink about the plot. You see, I know how to end this, but the timeline, reasons and plot is not constructive enough. I’m afraid I’d miss any little details that I’m going to use for the next chapter’s plot. 
> 
> (2) I’m no doctors, those xray reference I simply google it down. If you are the expert, I’m sorry please let it pass or educate me through comments. 
> 
> (3) Thanks for my friends who shouted to ask for update, you know who you are. This chapter had been ready but again, see point (1). If any error from this chapter, it will be on you, friends!
> 
> (4)The minhwan relationship might not be as per your expectation, considering there’s little interaction from the past 2 chapters, but hey, around 3k on this chapter purely for minhwan. Spare me!


End file.
